Bulldogs now in ECC

By Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Published: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM.

According to the 2012 average daily membership figures released by the NCHSAA late last year, Dixon’s student population of 797 places it fifth in new
ECC
, ahead of only Southwest (709). North Brunswick is the league’s largest school at 955.

“I don’t want to make any kind of statement (about which schools will benefit or struggle because of realignment) because you never know about injuries or about a kid who may transfer out or a kid transferring in,” Ball said. “But overall, we are going to show up every day and we are going to compete and whatever happens happens, as long as it’s the best effort from our kids and from all our coaches.”

This will be Dixon’s second stint in 2-A. The school was also 2-A for the 1969-70 school year — the earliest year the NCHSAA provides conference listings. Homer Spring, who served as AD from 1985-2012, said Dixon continued being 2-A before moving to 1-A in 1984.

Spring also said the NCHSAA had different criteria for deciding a school’s class then. That format used a school’s total enrollment for grades 10 to 12.

“The reason we had not been in 1-A all of the time was because early in the ‘70s and up until ’78 or ’80 … they had a scale that went from 0 to 199 and if you had 199 students or less, then you were 1-A,” Spring said. “If you’re 200 to 700, you were 2-A, and 800 to 1,200 was 3-A and over 1,200 you were 4-A.

“For that reason, Dixon, Southwest, Swansboro and Richlands at one time were all in one conference and in 2-A. Topsail was the closest 1-A school that we knew about. Eventually what happened … we did not drop to 1-A, 1-A jumped up and got us. The first time they split up (into four classes), it went from 0 to 600 was 1-A.”

And now that Dixon is in 2-A, Ball and his coaches have had to adjust to different scheduling and travel arrangements. Ball said the former wasn’t too hard since schools field most sports and that the latter became easier.

Editor’s note: This is the first of a four-part series detailing how NCHSAA realignment affects the high school athletic programs at Dixon, Southwest, Swansboro and Richlands.

DIXON — Nestled along N.C. Highway 17 between Jacksonville and Wilmington sits Dixon High School, which attracts students from the communities of Holly Ridge, Sneads Ferry and Verona.

Dixon can be overshadowed by bigger schools since it is in the middle of some sparsely populated areas in southern Onslow County.

Simply put, the Bulldogs have long been a good fit in the Coastal Plains 1-A Conference.

And Dixon has done well as a 1-A school. Its wrestling program owns four state titles, the volleyball and girls’ soccer team each have a championship, and the boys’ soccer team has a state crown while also advancing to two other state finals.

Additionally, the Bulldogs have been pretty good in baseball in recent years, advancing to the state finals in 2010 while being one of the county’s best teams.

But thanks to NCHSAA realignment every four years — this year marks the start of a new rotation — Dixon finds itself in 2-A and having to compete in the tougher East Central Conference this season.

That will likely remain true for some time, said athletic director Brandon Ball, who enters his second year as AD this school year.

“If you really have been paying attention to the demographics of the Sneads Ferry, Holly Ridge and Verona areas, it’s been growing. New housing developments are going up like crazy. We are booming. We are flat out booming,” Ball said.

“Barring any kind of real surprise thing happening with our population, we are not going down any time soon. We’re in a great position, three minutes from the beach, we are outside two fairly major cities in Jacksonville and Wilmington, and both are within very easy driving distances.

“And I know there’s a lot of talk about the draw down at (Camp) Lejeune, but that’s really not going to affect anybody because that’s 18- to 22-year-old Marines getting downsized and so we are not going to lose any kind of student population from that.”

And while the jump from 1-A to 2-A could make things difficult for Dixon on the surface — or for any other school moving up for that matter — Ball doesn’t think his athletic teams that mostly feature multi-sport athletes will feel much of a negative impact.

Rather, he thinks in most sports the Bulldogs will still be competitive in the ECC, which also consists of Croatan, East Duplin, North Brunswick, Northside and Southwest Onslow.

According to the 2012 average daily membership figures released by the NCHSAA late last year, Dixon’s student population of 797 places it fifth in new ECC, ahead of only Southwest (709). North Brunswick is the league’s largest school at 955.

“I don’t want to make any kind of statement (about which schools will benefit or struggle because of realignment) because you never know about injuries or about a kid who may transfer out or a kid transferring in,” Ball said. “But overall, we are going to show up every day and we are going to compete and whatever happens happens, as long as it’s the best effort from our kids and from all our coaches.”

This will be Dixon’s second stint in 2-A. The school was also 2-A for the 1969-70 school year — the earliest year the NCHSAA provides conference listings. Homer Spring, who served as AD from 1985-2012, said Dixon continued being 2-A before moving to 1-A in 1984.

Spring also said the NCHSAA had different criteria for deciding a school’s class then. That format used a school’s total enrollment for grades 10 to 12.

“The reason we had not been in 1-A all of the time was because early in the ‘70s and up until ’78 or ’80 … they had a scale that went from 0 to 199 and if you had 199 students or less, then you were 1-A,” Spring said. “If you’re 200 to 700, you were 2-A, and 800 to 1,200 was 3-A and over 1,200 you were 4-A.

“For that reason, Dixon, Southwest, Swansboro and Richlands at one time were all in one conference and in 2-A. Topsail was the closest 1-A school that we knew about. Eventually what happened … we did not drop to 1-A, 1-A jumped up and got us. The first time they split up (into four classes), it went from 0 to 600 was 1-A.”

And now that Dixon is in 2-A, Ball and his coaches have had to adjust to different scheduling and travel arrangements. Ball said the former wasn’t too hard since schools field most sports and that the latter became easier.

“Whenever you make a change like this going from one level to another level you’re worried about the logistical aspects of traveling and making sure a coach knows where schools are and how far they are,” Ball said.

“But it’s things we’ve been doing for years and so it’s not really a difficult issue, but it is getting us out of our comfort zone knowing where Pamlico is and where East Carteret is. We’ve been going there for years and years.

“But this is a welcomed change. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about the Coastal Plains Conference, but I’m going to be very, very happy, and I know our coaches, will be very happy that we don’t have to go to Pamlico or East Carteret on a Tuesday night where you’re looking at getting back at midnight. Obviously our furthest trip will be Croatan and North Brunswick and they are nowhere near those two.”

In general, Ball is excited about being in the ECC. He said the only major change he noticed was that admission for varsity football games are $6, compared to $5 in the CPC.

“We’re leaving the conference with a lot of good people and we’re going to a conference with a lot of good people,” Ball said. “So I’m real happy about that.”